Month: October 2016

When Theresa stood on the steps of Downing Street and made her victory speech, she didn’t exactly quote Francis is Assisi.

However, she did say that things were going to change. Of course they have, but not quite the way she seemed to suggest.

She was going to champion the little (wo)man, the working classes who had been so badly done by the Eton/Oxford government that her predecessor had led. She was going to sort out ‘Burning Injustice’.

Well, she had a chance to demonstrate how she could do that. It can be summed up in one word. Orgreave.

At Orgreave, during the miners’ strike of the early 1980s, striking miners were beaten by the police and then falsely accused of rioting… crimes that carried serious sentences. And the police got away with it with government support.

Does that ring any bells?

Were there not football fans at Hillsborough who suffered death at the hands of an incompetent policeman out of his depth, incapable of making the correct decision…and were these fans not then blamed for the catastrophe which ensued, accused of urinating on and stealing from dead bodies to make the fans seem at fault? Were they not made to look like inhuman monsters? And was the government not complicit in that?

Yes, they were. And, which force was responsible for this?

The very same one. South Yorkshire Police.

So, given all these facts and the prime minister’s vow, and the fact that she had shown an inclination to have an inquiry into Orgreave when she, herself, was home secretary, it came to me as something of a surprise to find out that the new home secretary, one Amber Rudd, thinks that it’s unnecessary.

Nah, why bother? No one died, could sum up Rudd’s written response. Somehow now, unless people die, it seems that police can get away with anything.

If there had been an inquiry at the time, perhaps the South Yorkshire Police might have sharpened up its procedures a bit and maybe, just maybe, Hillsborough wouldn’t have happened five years later.

Ms Rudd is of the opinion that there was no miscarriage of justice. Let that be a warning to people in England. The police can beat you and accuse you of rioting, but that is NOT a miscarriage of justice.

And there was me thinking that an inquiry would have investigated whether indeed there was a miscarriage of justice, and if there was, named and shamed the people responsible for it.

So Mrs May has fallen at the first hurdle. She gives not a damn about these men, their families, or what they went through.

Seriously folks, could we really expect anything else from the Pound Shop Thatcher?

4. Morning in the desert.5. I’d rather not be in a cage, but aren’t I magnificent anyway?6. My lucky neighbour is in Greece just now.7. I brought you some flowers.8. Hot baths; cold day.9. Hi there. Are you fond of donkeys?

10. Yep, it’s me again, being grumpy. I’m allowed at my age.

11. Doune Castle.

12. Pink river…

13. Would you look at that sky?

14. You did say you liked donkeys, right?

15. Scottish wildcat. There are so few of them left in the wilds.

16. Lunch at last.

17. Isn’t Scotland bonnie…if a tad grey?

18. Another amazing sky, in, I’d guess Netherlands.19. I shouldn’t be here, but at least I have a substitute mum, which is better than nothing.20. Sound advice to all.21. OK, that’s it for this week.I’m off to Munguin’s party. See you next week.

Munguin is grateful to Mr Paton for sending us the pictures and the story about the elderly Orang, Puan.

The following list of MPs voted against a Labour motion calling for a ban on the selling or arms to the despotic and barbaric Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; a country where the king is a friend of the Windsors.

Apparently, the foreign secretary said that if the UK didn’t sell arms to them then someone else would, which, although it is undoubtedly true, just about sums up his attitude to morality.

How much better for these kids to be killed and maimed by Great British bombs than by some inferior foreign muck.

LF: I know. It’s a blast, getting paid a Cabinet salary and having nothing much to do. At the moment I’m working on the decor for my stateroom on the royal yacht. This afternoon we’re having a Tiddlywinks competition in the Ministry of Silly Talks.

*****

DD: Hello David Davis, how can I help you?

N Sturgeon: First Minister of Scotland here. I was wondering how the Brexit plans were coming along with regard to Scotland’s continued access to the market.